Where in the world is Cuber?

Where in the world is Cuber?

Where in the world is Cuber?

"..I dread the day that I have to speak with a Californian accent to get my speech recognition programs to work..."

Californians don't speak with an accent, everyone else does.

Seriously though does anybody know how they teach prounciation in the new-england states? Do they teach them to pronounce a's as r's. For example; President John Kennedy would distinctly say Cuber when he was talking about Cuba.

And what about Austrilians. What is it with two english speaking countries where one pronounces an a as eye like in Austreyelia and the other prounces a as in stay pay gay etc. Of course in Auatralia I guess it would be stie pie guy. So if Australians say pie for pay, how do they pronounce pie that one eats for dessert?

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

Please don't fall for the trap of assuming that all Australians talk like Paul Hogan / Crocodile Dundee! Yes, we do have a distinct accent, but it is rarely as pronounced as in movies, where an appalling exaggerated accent is used to make it clear that the actor is supposed to be an Australian.

It is even worse when an American actor plays the part of an Australian character. James Coburn in "The Great Escape" (a great movie, by the way) was an absolute shocker, and Meryl Streep in "Evil Angels (aka "A Cry in the Dark") was even worse, but I suspect that only Australians noticed. The rest of the world probably thought she nailed the accent!

Now, if you want to hear a funny accent, you should talk to a New Zealander! The accents probably sound pretty much the same to an American or British ear, but is an endless source of amusement for an Australian!

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

A paper that describes how something shall be built is normally called a "drawing", I think. How come that most people, British, Americans of all states and probably Australians all say "drawring"? At least, that is what I hear them saying. Is it only we foreigners that pronounce that word without an "r"?

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

The "R" seems a special letter to many.The Scottish love the "R" and it is very much a characteristic sound in some Chinese Mandarin dialects. We were always eencouraged to cultivate the Peking "R" sound.

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

When I first started my current job, I was shown around and introduced to people by a New Zealander. I spent the first week thinking that the person in the cubicle next to mine was called "Stiff" (rather than "Steff"). At least we beat them at cricket yesterday in the "tisst metch" ("test match").

I think the UK must have the widest variance of accent w.r.t. distance of just about any country. The difference between St. Helens and Manchester is astonishing considering they are about 20 miles apart and the differences between Edinburgh (Note to our American allies: that's "Edinbruh" Not "Edinburg" or "Edinburrow") and Glasgow is well documented (distance 40 miles).

The Edinburgh accent is quite a soft one and usually pretty easy to understand, although some people have the strange habit of apparently randomly changing vowels. I have often heard people talking about the "flare" which is the thing that you lay carpet on or the the local football team "The Hairts", i.e. "Heart of Midlothian" or "Hearts" for short. When working in Edinburgh I remember one of the technicians (an Edinburgh native) talking about when he was an apprentice on a construction site in Glasgow. As the most junior person at the time he was sent to the local shop to get the "Djundjrr" and he had no idea what they were talking about. It turns out that it means "Ginger" i.e. ginger beer, although it is slightly more complicated than that. It is really a generic term for all fizzy soft drinks (like "pop" in England or "soda" in the US) and could mean cola, lemonade, cherryade, ginger beer or even the notorious scottish day-glo syrup that is Irn Bru (and you thought that Whisky was the national drink of Scotland!).

M

--Dr Michael F Platten

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

How come that most people, British, Americans of all states and probably Australians all say "drawring"?I'm not so sure that's common amongst US Americans. The only times I've heard "drawring" from an American were emulations of Mike Myer's character "Simon" on Saturday Night Live. ("Hello, my name is Simon... I like to do drawrings") Simon, of course, was supposed to be a British kid raised in hotels while his globetrotting father went to "business" meetings with all sorts of shady characters.

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

Actually I think that the common accent heard on television, not that I watch much being an NPR junkie, is described as Mid-american standard. From the few drama/speech classes I've had this is described as lower michigan suburbs with a bit of indiana and wisconsin (southern not northern) thrown in to homogenize it.

nick

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

hmmm... as someone who grew up in CA, I could never distinguish between the way people spoke on TV and the way the spoke around me. I visited a friend who'd moved to Maine, and he made fun of my "californian" accent. He was speaking rapidly and laughing, so I could hardly understand a word that he said.. .my reply was "habla californese?"

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

I understood that some of the national broadcasters ( Peter Jennings, Peter Newman, Keith Morrison) and others with high exposure ( Alex Trebek, Monty Hall, Morley Safer) to name a few were selected partly becuase of their 'neutral accent',- they all happen to be Canadian, eh!`Seems to me after watching a Matlock re-run he won a case based on the persons'accent'- they were saying things like things like 'warshed' (washed) & concluded the culprit was from Arkansas!

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

Like JulianHardy says, Australians don't all talk like Crocodile Dundee. I think we are more like Hugh Jackman at the Tony awards the other night, or Russell Crow in the Gladiator, or if we are feeling cultured, like art critic Robert Hughes.

I found difficulty being understood in Indiana where a Motel clerk said "Par'me sir but you have a very thick accent" but in New York I was never asked to repeat myself. I guess New Yorkers hear so many accents that they develop a good ear for them.

Checking into a small hotel in Devon (England) once I apologised to the desk clerk. "I am sorry if I am hard to understand, but I have an accent and I mumble," He replied "Oi know what it's loik surrr, Oi know.."

Jeff

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

In Australia, the head of every city council is a female horse - I know, because Austrines all talk about the local mare. It took me a long time to figure that one out. Strines also can't get their tongues around an "l" in the middle of some words.

Also, a lady called Laura Norder is a very popular figure with the "get tough on crime brigade" here in Australia. Maybe she is one of the mares in question?

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

New Yankee Work Shop. "A measured drawring is available...".My family in New York drinks "soder" but drives a "Caw".Californians don't have an accent as much as they have a whine while talking.My mother-in-law from Ohio does the "warsh"My friend from Boston dresses in "Bermuda Shots"

Isn't it great.

From Dallas, TX,Y'all take care,Rerig

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

In the late 70s I needed trauma therapy after witnessing women going shopping at Winn Dixie in their "shots" and bikini tops (though rather generously built), with their mauve hair in curlers and their teeth still in the glass by the bed at home. (worse still, I recognised one such lady as my aunt.)

PS where would Southern cooking be today without the liquidiser and mini-marshmallows?

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

OK folk - when did a lead-tin alloy change from Solder to Soder (or was it done by the lad who couldnt buy wrought iron so he used rod iron but not rot iron). Google seems to blame NASA. I once worked for Goodrich, where all surfactants were listed in the formulae as 'Sope'(anyone from Kentucky here?)Mark you, if you want a popular mis-spelling try to find a German valve manufacturer called Herion thru an internet search engine. You get thousands of references to C21H23NO5

RE: Where in the world is Cuber?

New Englanders do remove the "R" from where it belongs in a word and attach it to words where it doesn't belong ("I took the cah to Cuber") (as well as other liguistic machinations), but nobody (But NOBODY!) in New England speaks the way the Kennedys do. Only the Kennedys speak that way and have that accent. I don't know what it is or where it originated, but it's not the way other New Englanders sound.

Within New England are a variety of accents, mostly closely related to each other. In more remote areas, the accents get thicker and more exaggerated than in the more urban areas. No real problem, once you become accustomed to hearing words pronounced in those particular ways. For any accent, it's not a matter of mispronunciation as it is a cultural influence upon the use and pronunciation of the language. It doesn't necessarily relate to one's level of education. In television today, more news anchors are being hired who have not been made culturally bland and homogenized. They are allowed to be proud of their heritage and roots, in the way they speak.

Another thing to consider are words in everyday use (in those remote areas with the heavy accents) which are fairly unfamiliar to the rest of the world. In eastern Maine, you might hear someone refer to a "junk" of pork, meaning a slab or piece of bacon or salt pork, or you might hear someone refer to a long, open stretch (of land or of water) as a "fetch.") Cajuns in Louisiana illustrate an ancient heritage with medieval French when they may use an old French word meaning to moor a boat to refer to tying their shoes.

One of the more curious pronunciations to me is the inclusion by urban New Yorkers of a slurred "w" in front of the "o" in certain words, like "coffee." This comes out sounding like "cwoffee." There's probably a cultural reason for that kind of pronunciation of the short "o" sound.